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HDHomeRun Faulty Power Adapter

For quite some time, I’ve been hearing about people having faulty power adapters on their HDHomeRun on the Microsoft distribution alias. Turns out when I wanted to show VonLobster, I got the dreaded “Unable to locate tuners” error message.

I looked at my HDHR and notice all the LEDs were off. A closer look revealed the power LED was actually blinking green, but very dim. I looked at the power adapter and it was blinking red.

Later that night, I went to SiliconDust, hoping to contact customer support in regards to this issue. From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty simple to get them to replace it for you free of charge. Turns out if you go to their Submit a trouble ticket page, this issue is so big, that they actually streamlined it:

SiliconDust is offering replacements for the SW20-S050-15 power adapter shown.

A failing power adapter may result in one or more of the following symptoms:

Flashing power light on the HDHomeRun or failure to power on.

Flashing red light on power adapter.

Zero signal-to-noise quality (snq) on all channels.

If your HDHomeRun included this power adapter please see this page for a replacement power adapter.

If you go to their Power Adapter Replacement page, all you need to do is enter your HDHR device id (located on the bottom/back of your HDHR unit). They then verify if your HDHR unit actually came with a faulty power adapter and if it did, it prompts you for your name and address.

After submitting that info, I should be getting my power adapter in 3-5 days. I guess it’s good timing since new seasons for TV shows are just around the corner.

Update: Got my replacement power adapter today and once again, QAM HDTV on Vista Media Center works again 🙂

2 thoughts on “HDHomeRun Faulty Power Adapter”

Thanks for the tip. I tried submitting a trouble ticket to get my power adapter replaced but they said it was not needed for my device. I will have to submit a normal trouble ticket and see what happens.

Thanks. 2 1/2 years after the post, I dug out my old HDHomeRun to see if I could get TV on my iPhone. I had this blinking and you told me right where to look. I was able to just dig out another 5V PS, and I was in business.